Sunday, September 14, 2014

Film Review: Blade of the Phantom Master (2004)

"...issues mostly attributed to
the criminally short runtime, but it is fun and exciting."

Munsu,
the last of the remaining amheng osa – police-like government agents
who travel the world in disguise and right wrongs – travels the crumbled
land of Jushin.

Blade of the Phantom Master drops you right
into the middle of Munsu's current task. He eventually takes up a task
to free a woman named Chun Hyang from a tyrannical King, as well as the
people who are constantly tormented by said King. Munsu then reluctantly teams up
with Sando and ends up on a new adventure as he travels to an island
with a terrible secret. This plot is the bulk of the film. And,
fortunately, it's interesting and engaging. The climax has an excellent
action sequence, and the ending is great; I would love to watch a
sequel of this promising film.

The biggest issue for Blade of
the Phantom Master is the short runtime. The film is practically 1 hour
and 20 minutes long, without credits, and it squeezes in two
distinct-yet-related plots. Munsu's character, who is really more like
an antihero than a hero, is interesting; sure, he's arrogant, rude, and
self-preserving, but he has a certain charm that makes him an
interesting antihero. Unfortunately, we don't really get to spend much
time with the character – we really only see the surface. Sando is more
of the same – a distinct and even awesome idea of a character, but not
much more than an idea. There's a cute little bat in the film that I
thought would end up being a character, but serves no purpose, a missed opportunity.

Aside
from the character issues, though, I liked most of Blade of the Phantom
Master. Both plots, despite not being fully developed or explored, are
interesting and entertaining. The action sequences also great;
shootouts, explosions, sword fights... it's really versatile and
exciting when it comes to action – it's also very gory. The different
challenges Munsu faces, which I suppose we can simply call enemies, are also
very interesting and even cool. This echos the same problem as the main
characters, though: they simply aren't developed enough, we don't get to
see enough of them. There are fights with desert man-eaters, giants,
zombies, and other skilled swordsmen, all of which I would love to see more of.

As usual, the Japanese
voice acting is great; although somewhat cliché, we get some very
genuine and impressive voice work from the Japanese cast. The music is
also good; I expected something a little more unique, though,
considering the distinct setting. The art is also good; not my favorite
art style, but far from terrible. The Netflix Instant stream features
both Japanese and English voice overs, and English subtitles; for some
odd reason, this version does not translate the introduction monologue,
which gives vital information – I had to rewind the film and watch the
title sequence again in English to get that information, then switch back to Japanese, which made the
experience somewhat frustrating at first. Director Joji Shimura does
well in creating a consistent and well-paced anime film, but the runtime
is too short; the story and the characters feel overwhelmingly
compressed.

Overall, I enjoyed Blade of the Phantom Master: Shin
Angyo Onshi. It has some story and character issues mostly attributed to
the criminally short runtime, but it is fun and exciting. It's not
something
you'll lose sleep over if you miss it, but it is
something worth watching, especially if you're a fan of anime and have a
United States Netflix account to stream it on.